The
object represents in an abstract form a serpent that has visited only once each
of the 3 x 3 x 3 = 27 dots of an imaginary 3-D matrix, and that eventually came
to rest covering all of them. In no way the serpent can bite in its own tail
and create a closed loop (*).
The
serpent, has a length of 212 cm and is 4 cm thick, is able to fold herself into
a cube with a side of 20 cm.
There
are many ways for the serpent to visit all 27 points: e.g. the serpent can
start at any point of the matrix and go left or right, or up or down, etc.
The
only way to know how many possibilities there are is by trying them one by one.
The result is that here are 103346 possibilities.
Mathematicians
study the many possibilities of folding because there is a link with proteins
in living material. Proteins are initially long chains of amino acid molecules
that fold into a specific compact structure, which eventually determines the
unique role of the protein (see Cat. Nr. 51).
(*)
It can be proven that in an N x N x N matrix, in which N is an uneven number,
the snake will never be able to bite in its tail. That is only possible when N
is even (like e.g. in Cat. Nr. 51)
